The White House Pro-AM

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From NBC:
The President's (Martin Sheen) and First Lady's (Stockard Channing) staffs feud over rival agendas when her public statements about foreign child-labor abuse inspires a Congresswoman Becky Reeseman (Amy Aquino) to attach an amendment that will surely torpedo a long-delayed international tariff bill favored by the President. What's more, when the revered chairman of the Federal Reserve dies, the President is under pressure to name the former head's top lieutenant as his successor -- the same man who seriously dated the First Lady in college. Away from the White House, Zoey (Elisabeth Moss) clashes with her boyfriend Charlie (Dulé Hill) when she suggests that they not step out together at an upcoming club opening at the request of the Secret Service which is concerned about recent hate letters concerning their interracial relationship. Josh (Bradley Whitford) asks opinionated Toby (Richard Schiff) to mind his manners prior to parleying with important Congressmen.

[Joey Lucas]

From The Official Companion:
Surrounded by lights and television cameras, Abbey Bartlet is making am appearance on a live morning television show with fourteen-year-old Jeffrey Morgan, discussing child labour exploitation. Jeffrey started the Children’s Crusade when his pen pal in India was bonded to a loan shark to whom is mother was indebted. Sam is watching the show with Lilli Mays (Nadia Dajani), the first lady’s chief of staff. She wants press for Mrs. Bartlet’s crusade. She knows the President is going to the Hill the next day for budget meetings, and perhaps if they stayed at the White House on the down low instead, Mrs. Bartlet might get the public spotlight. Sam says symbolism is the key: Bartlet is going to Congress.

LILLI: Your guy steps out of a motorcade and that’s three column inches above the fold, my guy’s on page twenty-three.
SAM: Your guy’s married to my guy and my guy was elected, which is something you and your people are going to have to get used to.
LILLI: Your guy has a forty-eight percent approval rating, my guy’s at sixty-one percent and bite me.
SAM: Ah. Point well argued.

But their argument is moot in the face of larger events: the chairman of the Federal Reserve just died.

BARTLET: The market’s going to open two hundred points down.
LEO If we’re lucky.
BARTLET: When was the last time we were lucky?
LEO: Super Tuesday.

Leo’s advice to the President is to announce Ron Erlich as the new Fed chairman right away. Even a day’s delay could cost the market three hundred points. But Bartlet wants time. “I’m not ready to jump into bed with Ron Erlich yet,” he argues. “Making me one of the few people in my family who can say that.”

Toby tells Josh, they’re holding off on announcing a successor out of respect for the deceased. Josh asks Toby to join him for a meeting with three congressmen about the trade bill. The bill’s guaranteed to pass by fifteen votes but Josh wants their votes to broaden the bill’s liberal base of support. Toby thinks it’s beneath them.

JOSH: We’re gonna do good cop/bad cop.
TOBY: (pause) No. We’re really not.
JOSH: Why not?
TOBY: ‘Cause this isn’t an episode of Hawaii Five-0. How ‘bout if you be the good cop and I be the cop who doesn’t go to the meeting.

The death of the Federal Reserve chairman is the top story, and inevitably, Erlich’s name creeps into the press briefing. C.J. is trying to say there are a number of candidates when Danny Concannon announces to the room that Mrs. Bartlet has declared a preference for Erlich. Sam trudges to see Lilli Mays again, but she denies being the source for the quote. Imperiously, Sam tells Mays her staff has to work better with his.

As the word starts spreading of Erlich, Bartlet warns Leo and C.J. that it’s possible Erlich might not be right for the job. With a series of bad Press Room blunders in her recent past, C.J. is anxious do to the right thing. She wonders if she should go and see the first lady to ask her to clarify her position. Bartlet firmly says, “We don’t handle my wife.” He gets punished when they try that. He suggests they move on, it’s not a big deal.

After putting off his discussion for weeks, Bartlet has to tell Zoey the White House has been receiving some unfavourable letters about her dating a black man. Ron Butterfield told him that a newspaper reported she and Charlie will be attending a club opening, which coincides with a white supremacist convention in Virginia. Knowing that he will be accused of meddling in her personal life, Bartlet says Zoey can go, but not Charlie. Judging from the serious concern in her father’s voice, Zoey says she’ll tell Charlie, and Bartlet advises her to tell him the truth.

Josh is taking the meeting on the trade bill. Toby sits and behaves himself. Josh says that lower tariffs have been negotiated over seven years in Geneva with 130 countries. The bill’s finally ready for a vote. Toby points out that with or without their support, it will win. One congressman says they’re concerned about cheaper goods and their effect on labour and manufacturing.

TOBY: You’re concerned about American labour and manufacturing?
CONGRESSMAN #1: Yes.
TOBY: What kind of car do you drive?
CONGRESSMAN #1: A Toyota.
TOBY: Then shut up.

It’s still a mystery who the source of the first lady’s quote about Erlich was. Toby suggests that Abbey should mention she supports whomever the President nominates, but C.J. tells him about the President’s warning not to handle the first lady.

JOSH: (pause) Did he says he didn’t want you to handle the first lady ‘cause he didn’t want you to, or did he say it like, “Handle the first lady, but I’m not the one who told you to.”
C.J.: That’s what I don’t know.
JOSH: You gotta learn the signs.
C.J.: I’ve got most of the signs.
JOSH: You don’t have that one.
C.J.: I’m learning that one.

Sam sneaks out for some quiet thinking time at the gym, and there, Congresswoman Rebecca Reeseman (Amy Aquino) tells him she’s going to introduce a child labour restriction to the trade bill. Abbey Bartlet initiated the movement on TV and she can’t be left out. His quiet time comes screeching to a halt as the fifteen-vote margin suddenly looks vulnerable. The bill took seven years to get to a vote and the amendment threatens its easy passage. Without a doubt, Sam will have to ask Mrs. Bartlet to get Reeseman to back off her quest. He ha to see Lilli Mays about Erlich regardless.

Over lunch at a dinner, Zoey breaks the difficult news to Charlie, explaining they can’t go out together on Friday due to an increase in the death threats they’ve been receiving. Gina chimes in, offering that security would be too difficult where they planned to go. Charlie doesn’t give a damn about that. When Zoey excuses herself for the bathroom, Charlie walks out.

[Joey Lucas]

From The Official Companion (cont.):
When Sam goes to see Lilli Mays, he finds Abbey Bartlet waiting for him. He dives right in: the first lady’s staff is professional, but prone to amateur mistakes. Just short of wagging his finger in front of her face, he tells Abbey she can’t go on TV and have a kid sit opposite her because it would look like she only discovered right then and there that there was a child labour problem. She needs to vet that stuff through Sam’s office. Sam concedes to Mrs. Bartlet that she has to talk to Reeseman.

The President has arranged to see Danny Concannon during an evening reception; though warning his staff off his wife, he’s not above handling people himself. While he’s waiting, Danny lends an ear to Charlie, who’s still steamed about his disagreement with Zoey. Danny advises Charlie that the President and the Secret Service don’t care that he’s black, they only care about Zoey’s safety. He tells Charlie to let it go. Zoey gets two thousand marriage proposals and two thousand death threats, look at all she has to put up with to be a young woman in the public eye. Perhaps Charlie should make sure he is the one guy in her life who’s totally hassle-free.

Playfully, the President tries to pry from Danny his source on his Erlich story. “Danny, I miss our late-night talks,” he coos. There’s no way Danny’s ever going to give the information up, but the President will do anything to avoid having to face down his wife.

Reluctantly, Abbey Bartlet finds a quiet spot at the reception to talk to Rebecca Reeseman, explaining that her amendment will kill the trade bill in the Senate and this bill needs to pass comfortably. Reeseman says she felt like the train was leaving the station without her. She’s got her eye on a Senate seat and Abbey’s sure the President will do what he can to help. Reeseman confesses she’s worried too many people know about the proposal, can she trust Bartlet’s staff not to talk about it? Yes, says Abbey, without a pause. She has delivered.

His bill is secured, but Bartlet’s going to have to pay for it. Abbey’s furious that Sam felt he had the right to visit and order around her chief of staff twice. Bartlet admits that C.J. got the signal right, he did want her to send someone. The wire piece on Erlich was a problem, the kid on TV was a mistake, and Reeseman’s amendment could have killed the bill. He says he staffed it out to C.J.

ABBEY: You don’t staff me out. You don’t give C.J. signals, you don’t send Sam, and you don’t bring Danny Concannon up her. Don’t handle me, Jed.
BARLTLET: Then don’t play me, Abbey. Don’t work me.

Bartlet knows Abbey planted the story about Erlich, and now if he names Erlich to the Federal Reserve Chair, it looks like Bartlet is taking instructions from his wife. Abbey counters that he was going to name Erlich anyway, but merely waited a day because Erlich was her boyfriend thirty years ago for a month. Bartlet doesn’t disagree – but he tells her she can’t send him messages through the press or stake out agendas on the morning shows. Abbey declares she’s not going to stop kicking his ass on child labour. If it was one of his girls in a factory, he’d send in the marines. Te anger dissipates and their voices grow lower. The couple have just had their first Oval Office fight.

Charlie arrives at Zoey’s dorm armed with flowers, a video, and popcorn. He’s come to apologize for leaving her in the restaurant and for anything else she can think of. Zoey pulls Charlie into her room and the door closes behind them. “Bookbag is in for the night.”